Introducing broker · IB

Definition

Introducing broker: A person or firm that refers clients to a broker and is paid on the business those clients bring, without holding client money or executing trades.

What it means

The term carries two meanings. In the United States it is a registration category: the National Futures Association describes an IB as an individual or organisation that solicits or accepts orders for futures, commodity options, retail off-exchange forex contracts or swaps, but does not accept money or other assets from customers to support those orders, and it requires registered IBs to be NFA Members¹. The CFTC's glossary draws the same line for futures: an IB solicits or accepts orders but does not accept customers' money, securities or property to margin them².

Across most of the retail forex and CFD world the word is used more loosely, for a broker's referral partner — someone who brings traders to a broker through an audience, a course or a community, and is paid by the broker per lot, per qualified client or both. Which meaning applies, and which rules follow from it, depends on where the IB and their clients are. Check the rules where you and your audience are.

Example

An educator shares a referral link with their students. Students who open accounts through it become the educator's referred clients: the broker verifies them, holds their deposits and executes their trades, and pays the educator on what they trade.

Why it matters to an IB

The line that keeps an IB an introducer is money and execution. An IB who holds client funds, trades on a client's behalf or promises returns has taken on a different role, with different licences. Everything else in the business — plans, tiers, sub-IBs — sits inside that line. See what an introducing broker is.

Sources

First-party figures are Gravity's own observations of its product. External sources were read on the date shown.

Introducing Broker (IB) Registration — National Futures Association
Regulator · read 28 September 2026
CFTC Glossary — Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Regulator · read 28 September 2026

Sub-IB
An introducing broker recruited by another IB. The sub-IB is paid on their own clients; the recruiting IB earns an override on those clients, paid by the broker.
IB rebate
A fixed amount a broker pays an IB for each lot their referred clients trade, for as long as those clients trade. Usually tiered by volume or client count.
Cost per acquisition
A one-off payment a broker makes to an IB for each referred client who meets set qualifying conditions, such as a minimum first deposit and minimum lots traded.
Partner agreement
The contract between a broker and an IB that sets how the IB is paid, which clients and trades count, what the IB may say, and what happens when it ends.
Affiliate
A partner paid by a broker for sending it customers — usually once per qualified sign-up — whose relationship with the customer typically ends at the referral.

In the Journal

Where “Introducing broker” comes up

01
Marketing & advertisingHow-to9 min read29 September 2026
A social content plan for introducing brokers
Followers come to trust an IB who teaches, shows only what they can back and says who pays them. A weekly plan built on that, in the audience's language, at a pace you can keep.
02
Arabic, Persian & RTLExplainer7 min read29 September 2026
Arabic and Persian typography for the web
Arabic letters join, reach further above and below the line than Latin, and can read smaller at the same size. Type settings made for English break them in ways a native reader sees at once.
03
Marketing & advertisingComparison9 min read29 September 2026
Forex advertising rules: what Google, Meta and TikTok allow
The platform decides what runs; the regulator where your audience lives decides what is lawful. An IB who pays for an advert is the advertiser, and both sets of rules land on them.
04
Marketing & advertisingGuide10 min read29 September 2026
Forex IB marketing: how introducing brokers win and keep clients
An IB's marketing is one system, not a feed: attention, trust, a disclosed link and a reason to stay. What each channel does, what advertising may do, and where the rules draw the line.
05
Trust & complianceExplainer8 min read29 September 2026
Forex risk warnings: what the wording must say, by region
The words are set by the broker's regulator, and the loss percentage is the broker's own figure. An IB's job is to carry that warning unchanged, in every language, where no reader can miss it.
06
Audience & measurementHow-to8 min read29 September 2026
How to judge a sub-IB's audience before you sign them
A sub-IB brings you their audience and their habits with it. Nine checks to run before you agree terms, from the follower count to what they promise the people who follow them.
07
Websites & presenceHow-to8 min read29 September 2026
The one-page IB website, section by section
Nine sections, each answering one question a referred trader asks before opening an account. For each: its job, what it must hold, and the claim that would undo it.
08
Trust & complianceGuide8 min read28 September 2026
Evidence before claims: what an IB's page may say, and must
A page that sends people to a leveraged-trading broker is judged by its weakest claim. The standard that keeps an IB out of trouble, and the warnings that must be there.
09
Audience & measurementGuide9 min read28 September 2026
How to read a trading audience honestly
Follower counts are the vanity figure. What an IB needs before choosing a partner is how engaged an audience is, where it sits, and what nobody has measured yet.
10
Arabic, Persian & RTLGuide9 min read28 September 2026
Publishing right-to-left: an Arabic and Persian website that reads natively
Direction is one attribute. Reading natively is everything after it — the handles, tickers, numbers and type that run through an Arabic or Persian page.
11
The IB businessComparison10 min read28 September 2026
Rebate, CPA or hybrid: how IB commission plans compare
Three ways a broker pays an introducing broker, each rewarding a different kind of audience. The deciding variable is not the rate on the page but how long your clients keep trading.
12
The IB businessGuide7 min read28 September 2026
What is an introducing broker (IB)? How the model works
The referral business behind most retail forex brokers — what an IB does, how they are paid, and what makes the business last.
13
Websites & presenceGuide8 min read28 September 2026
Why an IB needs a website, not just a social feed
A feed is where people find you. A website is where they decide whether to trust you — the one place your offer, your broker and your risk warning sit together.

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